The Hime and Akuma
by Cynical-Servant
Summary: "Do you know what I am?" Ichigo found himself asking the child, mildly curious. "A… demon…?" (AU, Ichihime, possible mention of others, summary inside!)


**Summary:** Inoue Orihime was five when she met a demon with bright orange hair that came to take her ojii-san's soul. She begs to go with him where he lives when he says he's going to store it away in order make sure her ojii-san's soul will be safe. Though, this leads in her to making a contract with the demon when she finds herself wanting stay with him…

**A/N:** Okay, sorry if that was a sucky summary… but I SWEAR there's more to it.

Alright, this story is the new version of my old story _'Seeing the Demons'_ (which I'll be deleting later). When I looked back on that story it was badly written as the grammar was not good... ;P But I hope this version is better since my writing improved a bit. Yeah, I just thought that maybe I could fix it, make it better and then I decided repost it under a new story.

Well this story's inspired (not going to be totally like much it except for the first chapter, remember that cos the rest will be made up by my imagination) by the manga '_Vartag Tale'_ (which I read, like 2 years ago).

This story's set in modern time and is, of course, AU, alternate universe!

Enjoy! (o^^o)

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**The Hime and Akuma**

Chapter One

A young auburn haired girl awoke at the sound of shuffling outside of her bedroom. Her name is Inoue Orihime. Orihime sat up with a tired huff, bringing her tiny hands to her big grey orbs and rubbed them. She felt groggy and she turned her head toward the window to see that it was still dark out. The moon's rays shining throughout her room. She returned her gaze to her closed-door only to see a shadow pass by the gap below the door. She could hear footsteps and then the sound of a door opening and closing.

"Huh?" She muttered tiredly. She knew that it wasn't her mother or father as they had went out somewhere for the night, only leaving her grandfather to watch her. Her grandmother was no longer living. Her brother Sora was also out staying with a friend for a couple of days.

_Where's sofu going?_ Orihime thought, curiosity getting the better of her. After all she was only five years old, so she shifted to the side of her bed and slid off with her bare feet touching the cold floorboards. She quickly found her slippers and placed her feet into the fuzzy, warm openings.

She sauntered to her door and turned the round knob. She peeked her head through the crack to see if he had left the house late at night. There was no trace of him and she assumed he had left for some reason. But where did he go at such an ungodly hour?

Her gaze swept to the clothing rack that was close to the front door and saw that her grandpa had taken his hat that he wore most of the time, but when she looked to the ground she saw his black leather shoes left. Did he go outside without his shoes? Why would he do that?

_Maybe sofu forgot them? His feet are going to get cold… _Orihime thought. She briskly walked up the front door and grabbed her grandpa's shoes. She decided she was going to go give them to him. She didn't want his feet freezing.

Orihime pulled her front door open and exited the house. Once she had stepped out the wind blew, rustling her short auburn locks and white nightgown. She shivered as the wind was a bit chilly. But she wasn't going to go back inside into her cozy, warm house. No, she's determined to find her grandfather and give him his shoes.

Orihime's house is located in the woods, but it wasn't far from town and there were no neighboring buildings next to hers. She began to walk down a path that led to a nearby cemetery where, in fact, her grandmother got buried. She assumed that her grandpa had gone there, even though it was awfully late to do so, to visit his wife's grave. Her grandpa would often visit and speak at the grave as if he was chatting with his deceased wife. Orihime would go with him from time to time as well. Luckily Orihime knew the way to the graveyard though that was a bit of a distance away.

Holding the shoes close to her chest, Orihime trudged along the path. The fallen, dried leaves crunched beneath her small feet while she passed many trees that trailed the sides of the path. She was not frightened at being alone as the full moon lite up her surroundings, making her feel oddly comfortable.

After she walked for what seemed about a while, she finally came up to the gate entrance of the cemetery. The iron gates were already ajar. She turned her head, trying to find her grandfather. She didn't see him. So he was further in.

Orihime passed the many grave and head stones of the dead, trying to recall the exact location of her grandmother's grave. She always had a difficult time in remembering of where it is. She would probably get lost here if it wasn't for always following her grandpa. While she treaded deeper, Orihime began to hum. She giggled kind of enjoying the walk. She smiled as she hummed out more tunes for the dead resting here, hoping they would like it.

Going further, voices reached her ears halting her humming. It sounded like a conversation between two persons, one being her grandfather and the other unfamiliar. She soon saw figures once she crept behind a tall headstone to hide behind. She easily identified the one as her grandpa.

The other figure, though, made her mouth gape in surprise. The figure was a male, as his torso was bare exposing a lean yet muscular abdomen. The man had black pants and his feet were bare. He sported a pair of dark, fair length horns atop of his crown, standing out from his orange hair that cascaded down an inch behind his knees. His eyes were golden-brown with vertical pupils. What were also surprising were the folded midnight black wings against his back.

Who or what was he!? Orihime had to cover her mouth from releasing any noise.

"Are you ready old man?" The orange-haired man spoke. His voice was unthreatening to Orihime's ears.

Orihime saw her grandpa nod in reply and with a weak voice said, "Yes, I am ready. I was able to live happily and I am ever so grateful that you helped my son live as well. And now you deserve what you came for, I am, indeed, a fair man. I just wanted to visit my wife's grave one last time."

_Ready for what exactly? Sofu what are you talking about?_ She did not understand what they were speaking of. She stared at the winged man, questioning who and what he was. He looked like, in her opinion, a rather handsome _demon_… a demon… is that what he, who was standing tall in front of her grandfather, is?

She's confused from the recent mention of her father who was apparently able to live thanks to the orange-haired figure. What did her grandfather mean by that anyways? A gentle smile then graced the winged man's lips. The young auburn found the smile quite nice to see until out of nowhere her grandfather dropped to the cold ground on his front.

She flinched at the sound of his body hitting, what just happened?! As of to answer her, she looked at the man. Within his hand, hovering above his palm was a bright orb the size of a baseball.

_Sofu…!_ The girl mentally shouted while dropping the shoes and running out from behind the gravestone and towards her grandfather's still body.

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Kurosaki Ichigo gazed at the white orb of the soul he had collected from the old man. The contract they had made fulfilled, thus receiving his client's essence. He heard crunching of leaves and a small thud. He took his golden-brown orbs from the soul floating in his palm to see a little girl on her knees beside the old man's lifeless form.

_A human… a child nonetheless… _he thought as he stared, watching the child lay her hands against the old man's chest and shake him as if to wake him up. _Why is a child out in a place like this at this time of night? Did she follow the old man?_

He continued to watch her fruitless efforts in 'waking' the dead man up, not worried that the girl will see him because humans _couldn't_ see demons unless they willed it or had 'the sight', a natural ability to perceive supernatural phenomenon. That ability is though a very rare one to have as Ichigo knew of.

However Ichigo saw the auburn whip her luminous grey eyes directly towards him. His eyes widened in shock. _What…? Can she seriously see me?_

"W-what happened to Sofu?! A-and what's that?!" The girl shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. She had also pointed a short finger at the white orb.

A chilly gale blew, ruffling his long, orange strands.

"How can you see me?"

The girl shrugged her tiny shoulders. She sniffled and asked, "What happened to sofu… he's not waking up…"

"Do you know what I am?" Ichigo found himself asking the child, mildly curious.

"A… demon…?" Her head titled to the side. "Please tell me what you did to sofu…"

Ichigo exhaled a sigh, supposing he should answer her. He couldn't leave a small human in a cemetery on a chilly night either, so when he's done answering her he planned to take her home.

"Your ojii-san had made a contract with me after his son—your papa—was born... are you following?"

She nodded in response and he continued on.

"Your papa was born with a disease that would soon take his life not long after he was born and your ojii-san was not going to live long as well. To put it short, I stumbled upon him that led to us making a contract, a deal...

He had asked for me to cure your papa's disease and let him-self live longer to see his son grow up and live happily. In exchange for that deal was his soul. Now his contract ended as he had lived up to a good age to die." Ichigo displayed the orb to her. "This is your ojii-san's soul."

"Oh… so I guess he didn't need his shoes after all…"

"What?" Ichigo didn't understand what she meant.

"I followed sofu out here to bring him his shoes because he left without them… I guess it didn't matter if he had them on even though he took his hat… I guess he took the hat because sobo gave it to him a long time ago… what are you going to do with his soul?"

"I'm going to store it away."

The girl stared are her grandfather. "So… sofu knew he was going to die?"

"Yes, he knew and he wasn't scared. What's your name anyways?"

"Inoue Orihime. I feel better knowing sofu wasn't scared… but where's sofu's soul being stored at?" The auburn looked like she brightened up a bit from what he told her.

"At a castle I live in—"

"You live in a castle?" Her eyes seemed to lite up. "Can I come with you, please? I promise I won't touch anything if you don't want me to! I want to make sure sofu's soul will be safe!"

"Uh, what about your parents, they'll get worried about you." Ichigo didn't want to flat-out and say 'no' to her face and upset her. He didn't think he could handle a kid crying. So maybe he could convince her to tell him where she lived to take her home.

"No, they'll be back tomorrow." She looked hopefully at the demon with her big grey eyes. "I need to make sure his soul will be safe. Please, uh, akuma-san!"

Ichigo suppressed a groan while ran his fingers through his wild hair. _Akuma-san…?! Why the hell should I take her with me? Just because she wants to make sure the old man's soul is safe there?_

"The name's Kurosaki Ichigo and I don't know if I should bring you with me." The demon reached into his back pocket and pulled out a silver flask riddled with intricate designs. A silver chain connected to it from his belt loop. He opened the lid of the container and proceeded to put the soul in the flask. After that he returned the container in his pocket.

Ichigo noticed that Orihime gazed at him with a pout, her eyes gleaming with hope to take her to the castle. _Does she want to make sure his soul's safe that badly? Sigh, what have I gotten myself into?_

He sighed, "Fine, come—"

The auburn squealed in delight. She ran up to the demon. "Thank you Ichi-kun!"

Ichigo cringed at the pitchy yell, feeling his sweat drop at the nickname 'Ichi'. He stared down at the girl who only reaches to his knee. Her small fist gripped his pants leg with a huge grin.

The little human was admittedly adorable. He just hoped he wouldn't regret his decision. He knelt on one knee, getting at eye level with the child.

"Well you ready to go?"

"Yes, of course!" Orihime pinched his cheeks, stretching them. "But wait, what about sofu's body?"

"Ouch, that hurt." He complained. He glanced at the old man, then back to Orihime. "He needs to stay here. I'm sorry, but you will have to tell your parents that you heard him leave sometime during the night and you just fell back asleep. If they ask where he's at, say he might've gone to the cemetery."

"Mm," Orihime nodded, feeling slightly guilty from leaving him.

With that said he placed his hands under her arms, lifted her up, and settled her on his hip. He expanded his feathered wings and began to flap them. He bent his knees and jumped up.

"Here we go!"

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**Akuma – demon**

**Sobo – grandmother (used when addressing your own grandmother)**

**Sofu – grandfather (used the same like sobo)**

**Ojii-san – grandfather (used when addressing someone else's grandfather)**

**Well… was it good? Sorry if any Japanese honorifics were wrong, tell me if they are.**

**Anyways, I'll update the next chapter when I can (which I have like up to, like, 7 chapters kind of fixed & most likely a little or maybe a lot changed from the old version)! Not totally sure where this is all going to go, but I'll work on it!**


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